Invaders (a sequel to Vaz, Tiona and Disc) (14 page)

She took a moment to have her AI calculate how long the trip to the NEO would take. She got a figure of a little more than twenty-four hours of acceleration and twenty-four of deceleration, so essentially two days to get there. Then, no matter how boring this particular hunk of space rock turned out to be, she had the feeling that the NASA people would want to spend several days there looking it over and collecting specimens. Then it’d take another two days to get back to Earth!

Essentially a week’s worth of saucer time wasted on something NASA would learn in plenty of time by being patient. GSI had practically given NASA a smaller saucer that would be more appropriate for such a mission. The fact that NASA currently had that saucer in the deceleration phase of a mission to Neptune wasn’t really GSI’s fault. Admittedly, the Neptune mission had five more days of deceleration before it could even start back toward the inner system, then seventeen more days to reach the NEO near the sun, which could be a long wait if you were impatient.

But they want their cake, and they want to eat it too—as long as GSI picks up the tab for a mission to the object, they won’t have to interrupt their Neptune mission and listen to the Neptune scientists squeal. On the other hand, I’ll have to listen to Dante bark about wasting the company’s money so NASA can learn something about a space rock that will become evident in a few months with essentially no effort at all.

Tiona decided to tell NASA they were just going to have to wait unless they came up with a more compelling argument for making a trip ASAP. She had the feeling that granting this request would lead to more and more appeals from NASA for missions that they were too impatient to run with their own equipment.

Now she wished she hadn’t promised Eldon Weiss a trip to the NEO. In view of how she’d come to meet Weiss after he’d complained about GSI, it was surprising how much she’d come to like the scientist. He was handsome, smart, self-deprecating, and enthusiastic. During some of the transit days she’d sat with him in the big room and enjoyed talking to him. She’d quickly come to realize that he’d only complained about GSI because he so desperately wanted more information about the asteroids. He honestly couldn’t believe GSI
wasn’t
collecting specimens when they went out to get the metallic asteroids that were paying such a big chunk of GSI’s bills.

I’ve got a boyfriend!
Tiona thought to herself.
No matter how attractive Weiss may be, I’ve got to stop daydreaming about him!
That thought brought her to pondering how long it’d been since she’d seen Nolan.
Wow! It’s got to be over three weeks! I wonder what he’s been doing.
She resolved that she
had
to go see him.
Even if I do go right back out on a mission to look at NASA’s damned
NEO
, I should at least take time to see my boyfriend!
She tried not to think about all the people at GSI who were going to insist that they had to talk to her during the two days that GSI had set aside as mandatory crew rest after a mission.

Before she fell asleep she wondered just why she was going on so many missions. She’d thought she would be most interested in inventing new uses for thruster technology rather than being some kind of explorer. Nolan was the one who’d said he wanted to be an astronaut. But he’d never really asked to go on any missions even though she kept waiting for him to do so.
Maybe he’s reluctant to ask and wondering why I don’t
invite
him to go on some missions with me. Then, even if he didn’t want to go as the CTO’s boyfriend, he could go on some missions himself sometimes while I’m working with the thrusters—though that would defeat my objective of spending more time with him…

***

Eddie had just leaned his board up against the bike stand at the school, looking forward to some hijinks on the last day before summer vacation. As he stepped away from the bike stand he heard an excited murmur from kids nearby. Looking at them, he saw they were all looking back down the road. Eddie turned and shot a glance over his shoulder.

Someone else was riding their board down the same street he’d come in on… six feet up in the air! A stab of jealousy shot through him as he turned to stare.

Reven!

Reven could see now that it
had
been Eddie she’d been following toward the school. She’d thought it was him from the characteristic way he rode his wheelie board, but once he stepped off of it and flipped it up against the bike stand in his usual location she knew it had to be him.

When she’d first seen him up ahead of her, she’d slowed so she wouldn’t pass him. Subliminally she wanted to get to the school just behind him, not with him. She wasn’t quite sure why she didn’t want to show him the board by pulling up beside him on the way to school. She wanted to see him looking awestruck in front of a bunch of the other kids instead of it just being Eddie and her.

Coming up to the stand she skimmed down to six inches, then leaned back on the board to slow it, timing it so she stopped right beside the bike stand. Though she didn’t look directly at him, out of the corner of her eye she could see Eddie gaping. She flipped the board up and leaned it against the stand next to Eddie’s. Pulling off her helmet with one hand, she popped the quick release on her safety harness with the other and quickly bundled the two together. She thought the safety harness looked geeky and would have ridden to school without it if Dr. Gettnor hadn’t put interlocks in the software that provided her from riding the board without it.

With a big smile Reven turned to get the rest of Eddie’s reaction.

He’d just turned away to walk into the school.

Her heart sank.

Then other kids crowded around her, full of enthusiastic questions. Victor put his hand up for a high five and Reven noted with a little surprise that he really wasn’t short anymore. He was actually quite a bit taller than she was and might even be taller than Eddie. She slapped his palm and started answering questions. However, she couldn’t keep her eyes from glancing up to see Eddie meet Kate with a little hug on the front steps of the school. They both looked briefly toward Reven as they walked into the building.

Kate didn’t look happy.

Eddie’s eyes were hooded. Reven didn’t know how he felt… but
she
felt like shit.

Reven headed into the school, trying to answer the questions pelted at her by the surrounding crowd. Victor stayed right beside her, seemingly hanging on every word. Sometimes he answered for her when someone new asked a question she’d already responded to earlier. Since Reven felt like she was barely choking out answers in the midst of her emotional turmoil she felt grateful for the answers he gave in her place. She desperately wanted to appear cheerful and happy on this day, but felt like everyone could easily see how devastated she was by the fact that Eddie, her oldest and best friend, couldn’t give her the time of day.

Her dreams of Eddie seeing the fly-board and suddenly forgetting about Kate lay in ruins about her.

When she dropped into her seat in algebra, her first class, she felt surprised to realize that Victor was settling into the seat next to her.
Has he been in this class the whole semester?
she wondered. He certainly hadn’t been in the seat next to her the whole semester. That became evident when Manuel came up and said in a surly tone, “Victor, you’re in my seat.”

Victor stood up and Reven could tell that Manuel was also surprised to notice that Victor’d gotten taller. Taller than Manuel. Victor twitched his head toward the back of the room, “You can have my seat. I need to talk to Reven.”

To Reven’s surprise, after a momentary pause the usually belligerent Manuel shrugged and shuffled past Victor without saying anything more. When he sat back down, Reven noticed that Victor’s arms were a
lot
more muscular than the slender sticks she remembered.

Victor said, “So is Dr. Gettnor really cool?”

Reven didn’t know how to answer that one, so she shrugged and said, “He’s really, really smart, but also kind of weird.” She widened her eyes and said in a low tone, “He’s kind of a mad scientist.”

Class started and interrupted their conversation, but when the class was over Victor walked with Reven to her next one. In transit, he got her to promise to meet him at the skate park and show him what the fly-board could really do.

In truth, she was dying to show
someone
…

***

Lisanne walked up the steps and knocked on Clarice’s kitchen door. She and Clarice alternated having coffee at each other’s house every Saturday morning at nine. This Saturday was Clarice’s turn.

When Clarice opened the door and welcomed her in, Lisanne had the distinct impression that Clarice was unhappy about something. They got their coffee and sat down at the table in the kitchen. By now, they were usually chattering to one another about various trivialities, but so far Clarice had answered Lisanne’s conversational forays with short answers that hadn’t furthered the conversation much. Finally Lisanne said, “Okay, what’s bugging you?”

“Is it that obvious?”

Lisanne snorted incredulously.

“I guess I haven’t been… holding up my end of our dialogue, huh?”

“Nope. So, what
is
it?”

“Teenagers,” Clarice sighed. “I’m sure you’re glad your kids are grown beyond that stage.”

“Doesn’t keep me from worrying about them still, but I’ll admit I don’t have fond memories of those days.” She leaned forward as if revealing an important confidence, “At one point I threatened to throw my kids out of the house.” She lifted an eyebrow as if daring Clarice to doubt her.

“Ah, well, I’m not that angry, though Reven’s young still and, with her moods, I can imagine it happening.” She paused, staring into the coffee cup that she’d stirred long beyond any need it might have for more blending. Without looking up, she said, “I’m more… sad.” She shrugged, “‘Cause Reven’s unhappy and I don’t know how to help her.”

“Oh… I guess I’d rather be mad at my teenager…”

In a quiet voice Clarice said, “Me too.”

“Do you know what’s got her down?”

Clarice shrugged again, “Boys?” Then, as if recognizing the answer insufficient, she continued, “She’s always been kind of a tomboy, you know?” She looked Lisanne in the eye and, apparently seeing confirmation there, continued, “She played with boys not with girls and… didn’t seem very interested in the things girls are usually interested in. Hell, she was more interested in the farm than in dolls. She had one really good friend, a cute kid named Eddie Scott. I used to have silly daydreams of them growing up to be… more than friends, you know?”

Lisanne only nodded, wanting her friend to tell the story in her own way.

“So, last month I’m taking out the trash and I realize Reven’s bathroom wastebasket is full of Kleenex that’ve been used to wipe off makeup…” Clarice trailed off, looking like she had a frog in her throat.

Lisanne cast around for something to say to give Clarice a moment. Tentatively, she essayed, “I’ve never seen Reven wear makeup. Does she do it very often?”

“Never,” Clarice said, picking up a napkin and wadding it to dab at her eyes. Then in a tiny voice, “Never.”

Quietly Lisanne said, “Where’d she get the makeup?”

“Borrowed some of mine I think. I found it in the back of her drawer. Old stuff that I never use anymore.” Clarice looked up at Lisanne, “She’s dark like Harlan, not fair like me. I can’t imagine it looked very good, you know?”

“She didn’t ask you for any advice?”

“No,” Clarice said, with a little laugh. “Probably hoped to do such a subtle job with it that nobody’d know she had it on… but I can just imagine what it looked like. She’d come down the stairs one morning that week with her face all red, probably from scrubbing that stuff off. Her eyes were swollen so I think she’d been crying.” Clarice paused thoughtfully, “I’ll bet that’s the week she bought that cute blouse too. I’d had some hopes that she was going to start dressing… I don’t know how exactly, but not like a boy in oversized T-shirts and shapeless jeans. I found the blouse in the wash with a black stain on it and a button missing.” Clarice quirked her lips sadly, “The stain was probably mascara.”

There was a long pause during which Lisanne waited for Clarice to continue. When she didn’t, Lisanne finally said, “So that was last month. What’s happened now to bring all this back to mind?”

“Yesterday was the last day of school, you know?” At Lisanne’s nod, Clarice continued, “She rode the new fly-board Vaz made her to school for the first time. Tell him thanks for that, by the way. She loves that thing! Anyway, she looked really excited when she left in the morning, so I thought she’d be pumped up when she got home too.” Clarice paused, staring sightlessly out the window.

Lisanne tried to picture how having something that no one else had could influence a teenager’s status in school. She thought usually for the better, unless you were low on the pecking order and some of the cliques above you got jealous. Tentatively, she asked, “I assume it didn’t go well?”